Why is it such a turn-off for women to have facial hair?

Hair on your face is due to a higher than usual level of testosterone. *At least thats what I’ve heard.
I had a friend with literal.. back hair… on her lower back. Black.. hair.
It. is. disgusting.

The downy hair on the sides of the face is okay, but caterpillar eyebrows & mustaches have GOT to go! I hate it.

Hubbs doesn’t care but I do. I feel judged by other women who see me. Women are mean and cruel to each other many times. I’m not a wooly mammoth but I am Polish. I have peach fuzz and a low neckline. My whole family does.

I wish I was strong enough to say that I don’t care. I mean, for crying out loud, I’m a MAMMAL. I give birth to live young and I have hair- it’s kindof the thing to do in my class.

Now if the media would stop telling me I need to be a naked mole rat then possibly I could get somewhere.

Why? What’s the big deal? Explain.

@tinyfaery I prefer being a naked mole rat. lol
I think some of us are just raised differently to accept some things over others. I just don’t think its very feminine.

…awwww…

@tinyfaery you’re right, it is illogical. I think it ties in to our underlying usually unquestioned assumptions about what men and women are supoosed to look like.

So because someone said so?Good reason.~

I was “blessed” with my mother’s testosterone level apparently, because I have a little too much in places it shouldn’t be on my face. Waxing doesn’t work, I’m too poor for laser removal, so I shave. And I HATE it with all of my soul. I’m mortified when my boyfriend tries to touch my face and I shy away, but he insists he doesn’t care. I know he doesn’t, because a guy that would care would run in the opposite direction.

It’s pretty depressing. I don’t want to care, but I care a LOT. I couldn’t even begin to tell you why. If I knew, I could fix it.

a lady can have a gorilla mask for all i care…

With me, it’s just personal preference. Plus, about 20 years ago, my husband jokingly said something about the darkening hair on my top lip. That did it! Off it went & off it’ll stay!

@poof Shouldn’t? Who says? If it’s there then it’s there.

The “naked mole rat” exfoliated genital fad bothers me more than the facial hair issue. Absent pubic hair isn’t feminine, it’s childlike.

And if an exfoliated woman get exposed to a viral STI like herpes or HPV, she’s going to have a much worse outbreak than she would without all those little microabrasions.

@MagsRags completely with you on the bare genitals bit. it’s just creepy to me

@MagsRags A bald genital area is a whole other ball game. This is about facial hair. but your so far one GA is me. I agree with what you said

When you think about it this doesn’t just apply to hair on the face, it seems all hair on a woman is taboo nowadays..

It all has to come off. Or it will drive me crazy.
And, I better not feel any stubble under yur nose while kissing you.

Sorry ladies.

I don’t know why but sometime during the 80’s women were no longer allowed to have hair anywhere but on their heads. And on their heads it had to be five feet tall. Migration of hair culture?

@tinyfaery: I personally have an aversion to hair in general, when it’s not from the head, so maybe that’s it? It’s one of those society things that’s gotten really unfortunate. Like beautiful women are skinny and hairless…

@ChazMaz You’re my kind of guy. No need to apologize.

No one is hairless and no one should pretend to be. I have no problem with people getting rid of hair certain places if it’s what they prefer. But I hate it when I see women who try to pretend like hair only grows on their head.

My ex actually told me that he liked blonde peach fuzz in certain areas. He said it was feminine and highlighted areas he liked to focus on.

@ChazMaz Afraid your mustaches interlock and you’ll be stuck?~

Speaking as a guy, I’m a big fan of downy cheek fur, and I don’t have a problem with faint sideburns, etc; sometimes they can be nice as well. Emphasis on faint and downy, however. As for why that is, it is presumably because we naturally learn to define beautiful as the average of what we are exposed to (as in, a digital composite of the pictures of many women will be very attractive, probably more so than any one of them), and we are all mostly exposed to women without much facial hair to speak of. So, it is a cycle where even if the original rational, that women are supposed to be as unmanly as possible, were to disappear (which of course it hasn’t), we have still been conditioned to expect hairless skin.

I had an Italian girlfriend that had a bit of coarse hair on her upper lip. I didn’t like it, but only because it was scratchy, not ‘unsightly’. Who wants to kiss stubble? She sure as shit complained when I didn’t shave often enough.

So in this case everyone is okay with caving to societal pressure? Why is it okay in this instance? Don’t you want to think for yourselves?

@markyy

I find it funny that it’s so taboo; there are plenty of girls who would have hairier legs than me if they didn’t shave it off.

@tinyfaery

(My guess is that hairless is seen as feminine and hair is seen as masculine and people just want to stick to that in general). There shouldn’t be anything wrong with preferring no hair on a woman; it’s just a preference like any other preference. Just because a person has this preference doesn’t mean they’re “caving to societal pressure”. I don’t prefer facial hair on guys.

this is a weird issue. I’m not comfortable with it on myself, but with pale coloring and really dark hair, on occasion, things get a little dusky. No one has ever commented on it, but I deal with it as best I can.

because its witchy old lady gross, grandmothery , icky.

@tinyfaery Like I said, a lot of my feelings towards it is just personal preference. It’s what I want to do with MY body.

Beard is cool and a bit of side burn never hurt anyone.

@tinyfaery: I just know that when I see it, I feel like crap and immediately do anything I can to remove all traces of it.

So we’ve internalized the idea that women in their natural state are unsightly and must obey certain hygiene rules? Interesting.

I think that it is normal. We shouldn’t be ashamed of it. I don’t see why you would to change who you were created. To me, laser hair removal, and all the crap is taboo to me. My friends little sister is wanting to start shaving, and she is 9. all she has is the not quit there peach fuzz. Look at what society is doing to little girls. But nobody seems to really care about it.
I look in the mirror, and I don’t give a fuck. I am who I am, and if you don’t like it, find somebody else. My preference, is just to be me.

Hey jmah? Do you experience this in your lesbo community? I certainly don’t.

I once dated a Hispanic girl who a bit of the light side burn thing going on. It didn’t bother me atall. She was/is a beautiful lady.

I’ll be honest. I could care less about facial hair on women. I just want the Exhibitionist award. ;)

Award sluts. :)

Is it caving? Maybe. I can only fight society on so many fronts at the same time.

I’m tapped out.

I’m not waxing my entire body or bemoaning my forearm hair so I think I’m a work in progress. Plus Tuesday I have Will-Someone-Please-For-Muck’s-Sake-Take-Out-The-Recycling; Wendsday is I-Will-Not-Play-Nice-Just-Because-I-Am-A-Girl; Friday and Saturday is totally booked with Just-Because-I-Am-A-Plus-Sized-Girl-At-A-Bar-Doesn’t-Mean-I’ll-Do-You.

@tinyfaery, yes we are, chica ;-).

It’s not a big deal to me. I have really dark hair so it shows up more than it does on most women. I’ve had times in my life when I got rid of it and times in my life when I didn’t bother with it. I think a lot of it comes down to age. The fuzzy stuff isn’t there on girls, but it’s there on women. It’s creepy that women are always supposed to want to be and look really young.

@tinyfaery: If you’re raised taught that boys have beards and moustaches and girls don’t, and then your entire life, you grow up seeing women with naked faces (unless you get all up close and look) and men with facial hair, how is it not thinking for yourself? Besides, for someone like me, the deck was already stacked against me in the looks department, and being an adolescent/teenager with low self esteem and too much facial/arm hair who’s overweight and bad teeth… that will really fuck with how you think for the rest of your life in terms of “I will NEVER be in that position ever again.”

Does that make any sense?

@tinyfaery I don’t experience it in the lesbian community, no,

@DominicX I bet there are girls out there that sport manlier beards than I do. I do think a lot of it comes from social pressure. I mean a lot of women in this thread already admitted it makes them feel uncomfortable, they only feel that way because they are taught to feel that way. You might find it better looking, nicer to the touch, or whatever, but that insecurity from within comes from looking different.

Ps. kudos to all you ladies, right now I’m sporting a 3 day scruffy look just because I’m too lazy to shave right now (and I don’t have to do my entire body).

@poof I think it’s sad. You are beautiful and I don’t even have to look at you. Nor do I care if you have a beard.

hairy women unite! Take back our gender!

@tinyfaery: Thanks :) It is sad. But I can’t change how it makes me feel either… at least not while I’m still trying to shrug off my teenage traumas on the subject of my looks.

im quite sure that what is ’‘attractive’’ and what is not, is all learned behaviour. in victorian times fat girls used to be snapped up asap. now they are seen as undesirable.

i dont see any possible reason for this change, appart from the social expectations of others. im quite sure that if we get enough people to say that girls with facial hair are attractive, others will soon follow suit and start to claim the same. we could turn it in to a new cultural thing, and in less than 50 years or so we could have all the hairy girls being asked to model clothes and do pornos and be on the cover of magazines.

personally i find it quite shallow that someone would not like someone anymore simply because they developed a little or a lot of hair on their face. specially when you consider how low maintenace males are when compared to females, they put up with worse from us.

@poofandmook I feel you there. It is very hard to just say I have had enough with what society thinks as beautiful. As long as you think and know that you are beautiful, you are. Don’t let anybody tell you that you aren’t. To me, from my personal expirences, I have found that even though I have gone through a lot more to feel accepted, It makes me a stronger person. And I hope it makes you a stronger person.

@DrasticDreamer I’m with you!

@poofandmook

personally, i think we all end up looking like crap as we age. we should pick personality every time. plus, it does not have to be your problem. its the problem of whoever has a problem with it.

looks have no influence at all over how good a hug or a kiss feels.

If men had to put up with the gawd-awful…plucking, tweezing, lipo-ing, squeezing, dyeing, dieting, pumping, jumping, pulling, threading, peeling, waxing, curling, straightening, washing, coloring, brushing…..and primping…...of every bit of our bodies….as we do…..

It would just never have been done at all. None of these practices would have been espoused. And history would have had no problems with hair. It’s bad enough to get a straight man to brush his teeth before getting in bed! But women always have had to be de-humanized (made plastic) in order to be sexed-up.

It’s like a team of female comedians I heard once…..who said that if men menstruated, it would be a national holiday and a paid three day leave each month. Men would be bragging about the intensity of their cramps….and comparing them to see who was the strongest in the pack for endurance. :)

Now, we have been conditioned as a society to not like hair on women. But frankly, I find beards on men unattractive, too. So, there you go.

@DarlingRhadamanthus My dear… Lurve! I would give you 50 GAs for that response, if I could!

@DarlingRhadamanthus I like your style. :-)

I dislike guys to have more hair on their backs and chests, than they do on their heads, It is nasty. To me it’s like hanging out with Austin Powers. that’s nasty

the more i think about it the more it seems to me like some complex that some males have developed, i would bet you any sum of money that if we did a proper study on this, you will find the more homophobic a man is, or the more insecure he is about his sexuality the more he will dislike girls with facial hair.

Found the first page of what looks like a fascinating article here entitled Biomedical vs Cultural Constructions of Abnormality: The case of idiopathic hirsutism in the United States. It’s from a 1988 book. They don’t get into the facial hair issue on the page they let you see for free, but this reference was interesting.
A high proportion of ethnographic evidence fit the following pattern: Long hair equals unrestrained sexuality; short hair or partially shaven or tightly bound hair equals restarined sexuality; shaven head equals celibacy

Of course, these days lots of guys who are considered sexy shave their heads, so some portion of that has shifted.

I still don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a preference against facial hair on women or men. It’s just a preference. Why is this any different than having a preference for long or short hair? Or the height of the person?

Frankly, I don’t think that most of what women put themselves through for appearance is a result of male preference. I really don’t think guys care about it nearly as much as women do. The obsession with the minutiae of appearance is more female-driven than male driven.

@DarlingRhadamanthus That’s it, I’m going to shave right now :P

I’m female-bodied but I don’t identify as female, and I STILL feel pressured into shaving/plucking/waxing the slight beard growth I get because of my Cushing’s disease. It’s really really hard sometimes not to care what other people think.

I had one woman recently tell me she only shaves what the public can see….that was not a turn on.

It was probably something a man did or said.

Hair has never been an issue in that way for me. I’m naturally just a non-hairy person. I only had to really consistently shave my legs when pregnant, and afterwards the growth slows and is light. I don’t shave my legs for anybody but me. I have done the wax on moustache thing, even though I have none…(natural blonde, so I do have hair..it’s just really light) I remember doing it and thinking how stupid it was that I was concerned with the light hitting it in a certain way and ohmygosh someone might think I’m hairy. Ugh. I hate being a woman sometimes…all these “standards.” I’m glad I’m having another boy, I honestly wouldn’t know how to protect a daughter from the terribleness of the media/other girls.

I know of girls who are much hairier than me, and I’ve never asked or said anything about it to them. I’ve had them complain to me about it, and have seen quite a few with the wax or bleach on their lip….I do wonder what goes through their mind. Are they doing it for themselves, because they find it unattractive, or doing it because they might be insecure of what others would think?

A high proportion of ethnographic evidence fit the following pattern: Long hair equals unrestrained sexuality

This is true in my case, 100%

@eponymoushipster The type that always wears long sleeves and pants?~

@eponymoushipster Ewww. I’m sure it wasn’t!

I myself have always had very fine hair on the sides of my face and slightly heavier on my upperlip. I also had what is referred to as unobrow. My brows I tweezed and my upperlip I left alone until I hit my 40’s. I now shave on occassion and the peach fuzz on my cheek area has gotten heavier. I try not to shave too often as I hate stubble. And yes it is more of a personal preference. But i do love facial hair on my guy

@markyy basically, yes.

@jbfletcherfan not at all. i think i made a face.

@eponymoushipster LOLLLLLLLLLLL, I’d think so!

@DominicX I agree with you. it is an opinion, and everybody has one.
Just because I am different with how I view myself than to others, just means that I worked hard to accept myself, despite what others said.
@casheroo I am like you. I do it just for me, and it is my legs. But I don’t wear shorts, so I don’t make it a priority.
Plus is gets cold out here in Co.

And the shaving of genital area is really bizarroo, what gives. The hair in that area is there for a reason. It protects the sensitive area of the vagina from excess bacteria so when you shave there you are more prone to urinary tract infections and other little nasties. I definitely don’t get the need for the men to shave that area at all.

@DominicX It is just an opinion, but when a little girl is surrounded by men and women alike hearing things like, “Ugh! That’s disgusting!”, she’s not really going to be able to form her own opinion. Young people are very impressionable. Some people either forget that fact, or they take advantage of it to mold their version of “perfect”.

@Harp I completely agree that more women care than men. Plus how are we supposed to buy all this crap (tweezers, bleach kits, waxing appointments) if we are never told how ugly we are?

hairy legs in the winter are the way to go.

@marionef

any time i have shaved that part of my self it has been to make my self appear larger. as for girls, i do like a girl to be at least partly shaven down there. if only for convenience. i have never enjoyed finding hair in things i intended to put in my mouth. but its easy to look past. at least for me.

yeah, as for nether regions.. I’m going to trim my boyfriend simply because I don’t like it when hair goes up my nose :x

From my observation, the light colored downey hair on women is seen as sensual by a lot of people unless the hairs on the face are noticably long. Darker hair on women is likened to either men or animals.

@casheroo I know. To all the people who have never tried it, you should. Just come out here, then you will feel cold as hell, with out all of your layers

@Harp: But why do women care more than men? Because they think men care. And judging by the answers here, some of them really do.

@poofandmook LOL. I’d say he better trim it if it’s long enough to get inside my nose! Yuck! Mine trims his as well, I prefer it trimmed just for comfort for me.

I agree with @Casheroo, a bit of hair on the legs during the winter is where it at! Keeps you warm. Although, I wear pantyhose for work and when I have stubbly legs, it feels gross, so, I shave ‘em during the week. Weekends, shaving is optional.

@casheroo I think a lot of it is that hairier girls are taught (in my case, by both members of my own family and other people) that you have to take care of that body hair. I’m a hairier girl, and I remember being made fun of by a boy in 5th grade for having hairy legs. At that point, my mom didn’t think I needed to shave them, as I was only 10 years old. By the time I was 13, my stepmother was constantly getting on my case about waxing my eyebrows and upper lip hair- which wasn’t even that bad or noticeable at that point. At 24, it’s pretty much indoctrined in me that body hair is disgusting and gross. Much like @poofandmook, I’m embarrassed about mine even though my boyfriend doesn’t care. It feels disgusting, I think it looks disgusting, and one of the first things I notice on other girls is whether or not they have body hair- likely because I’m so insecure about my own.

@rockstargrrrlie: exactly. And it’s horrible. I would give damn near anything to not care. But all I can remember is the boy on the bus in 6th grade, “eew look she has hairy legs!”

@poofandmook I actually had my hormone levels tested (several years ago, and I’d like to get them retested when I have health insurance again) and I remember hoping that they’d tell me I had elevated testosterone just so that I’d have a reason for being hairier than normal girls.

I didn’t. I was so disappointed that my doctor’s only explanation was my ethnicity (100% Jewish).

I stopped wearing shorts when I started the fifth grade, because my mother told me that I was way too young to shave. I was embarrassed then, but then I hit high school, and I wasn’t uncomfortable. with it. I only shaved for the dances. But I still don’t wear shorts. They are now uncomfortable.

From an evolutionary perspective, more hair => more testosterone => lower fertility.

But I imagine society is trying to move past that kind of reasoning since our genes are hardly in danger of dying out.

I see a pretty big contradiction between “I do it for me!” and “all this plucking and tweezing is a ridiculous pain the ass.” But I think we are all entitled to a little harmless hypocrisy now and then.

@Harp: For once, I think I disagree. I think men actually do care about minutiae, but they don’t realize it. Women tend to be better at perceiving fine details and men tend to be better at perceiving a central idea. So I think what happens is that a guy sees a woman and thinks “hot” or “not hot” without ever noticing the specific contributions of eyebrow-shape, eyeliner, lip color, etc to his perception that a woman is hot (or not). (I also suspect this is where men get the completely inaccurate idea that they like women better without makeup. They don’t notice makeup on attractive women…and when the makeup is so pronounced that they do notice, it’s probably no longer attractive.)

@nikipedia The “I do it for me” thing is true. It does get tedious at times, but I really kinda enjoy it. I am doing it for me, because I don’t think my husband really cares one way or the other..

@jbfletcherfan: I guess I see “I do it for me” as kind of missing the point. The question is really driving why do we prefer to be hairless? Even if it is your preference, what is driving that preference?

@nikipedia the look, of course, & the feel. I like to feel smooth skin. For instance, nothing feels better than getting in bed with just shaved legs. And the end result from waxing my chin & upper lip feels good. Some may think I’m crazy, but I also shave my arms. I didn’t like the looks of the hair I had on them. I also like that look & feel. My daughter & granddaughter do the same thing. I dunno. There again, it’s personal preference in looks & feel.

I had a girlfriend (different than the one mentioned in previous post) that had 4 or 5 thick, coarse hairs growing out of her left areola. She didn’t trim them or pluck them or anything, so they were lengthy…a good 2 inches maybe. I’m sorry, but that kind of random hair on a woman’s chest is absolutely disgusting. I always thought it was odd of her to take pride in her chest hair, yet she thought unshaven legs were “gross”.

@FutureMemory Ooooohhhhhhh….........LOL! Yes! Gross!

@FutureMemory that is nasty. on her tit? ewwwww. There is something wrong with that one.

I think this goes both way (at least of leg hair). I’m sure there are guys out there who would like to shave their legs, but don’t do it because it’s too “gay” or “feminine”.

I don’t see the mechanism by which males are now driving the feminine aesthetic. Women may be driven by a desire to attract men, but I still think that the details that define that aesthetic ideal are created by women. Men are way less attuned to the subtleties, and are just fine with whatever standard the women decide on. That’s my perception, anyway.

If men did not prefer hairless women why would practically every piece of porn feature a hairless, svelte, young female? Have you ever seen Hugh with a hairy playmate, the Sports Illustrated bathing suit edition with hairy models? A Hollywood starlet on the arm of a leading man is never hairy. If men don’t want hairless women, we ought to alert the media cuz they don’t seem to be getting that message.

Someone is always saying women dress and do what they do for other women, but I have never believed that. in most cases, women torture themselves because it is what society (culture) in general and males specifically expect and frequently demand.

@DarlingRhadamanthus – GA and a double good on ya!!!

Not a porn fan, but shaven pubic regions just look freaky to me. Body hair in any form is and always has been a non-issue as far as I’m concerned.

@nikipedia I don’t know the exact science behind the driving force of women wanting to shave…I believe it’s just how we’re raised, and ingrained in us..I don’t know who started the campaign against hairy women. I know, for me, I prefer to not have stray eyebrow hairs, so I get them plucked or waxed..it’s because I dislike the hairs and have never had anyone say anything to me. The driving force is probably just society, girls wanting to grow up and be “womanly”. I don’t know.

@Harp – judging by the images that surround us, you must be the exception. And it is comforting to know such men exist! (and I was not referring to pubic area, the whole body is to be hairless, except on the head as was stated above)

I shave. Therefore I don’t have facial hair, why would I want my girl to look more masculine than me?
On a side note, I know a group of guys who all shave their arms…it’s kinda weird..

If @Harp is right then why are women in same sex relationships not as concerned about body hair and such? Shouldn’t we be more aware? If it’s not the opinion of men then what else?

@tinyfaery: I hope this doesn’t come out wrong. From the experience I’ve had with people in same-sex relationships, they seem to be more forgiving of things that go against the grain in “normal” society, simply because being gay goes against that grain to begin with. The gay people I’ve met, and I’ve got gay friends out the wazoo and a gay father, seem to be much less shallow. Of course I mean those who aren’t just out trolling for sex. but then that rings just as true for heteros.

it shouldn’t be. it is literally un-natural to shave lazer cut it off when another gender is expected not to…I remember being little and wanting so badly to be like Mommy, to have ‘sexy’ smooth legs, to flaunt…I was my absolute own worst nightmare as a teenager…I didn’t know where laid my value…I learned…and when I learned I became enraged…this isn’t about being a queer person and it isn’t about any experience in particular…I just hated the fact that it is SO hard to go outside and not have perfectly shaved legs and to listen to the comments and to notice the looks…sometimes you’re not up to defending yourself 24 fucking 7 and you don’t want to cover it up…but I stopped shaving regardless because I shouldn’t have to…this correlated with me finding the love of my life who doesn’t give a shit if I embody some sort of prepubescent smooth barbie doll…eventually when I got a ‘proper’ job to support my family I had to take my facial piercings out and shave my legs so that I can wear skirts (it’s hot in the summer, don’t want to wear pants all the time)...it was a hard hour…I cried with my razor in my lap in the bathtub…I cried shaving off my leg hair and armpit hair to conform…it took me so long to stop caring….and then it all went down the drain…but what am I supposed to do? I already fight people on every imaginable front, I just want to be left alone…so if I have to shave sometimes, I do…but I miss being able to not

“the more homophobic a man is, or the more insecure he is about his sexuality the more he will dislike girls with facial hair.”

That speaks volumes of your own insecurities.

lol4rl, @ChazMaz is worried people are going to think he’s insecure. Don’t worry, man. That suggestion didn’t put any ideas in our heads. We already thought it before.

wait, @ChazMaz isn’t gay?

Actually, I am very happy!

“That suggestion didn’t put any ideas in our heads. We already thought it before.”

And the cup of insecurity runneth over. :-)

In the vein of what Simone writes, I say pick your battles. It would be really cool if hair on the body was not only acceptable but deemed attractive so we wouldn’t spend so much time contorted and razor burned/nicked but it’s not and in order to appear neatly groomed, attractive to my partner and sensual feeling to my own self, I shave, pluck, laser and the men shave and trim. My main thoughts are going to work, being accepted and successful, taking my sheckels and then living as best I can.

in my brothers words itd be like making out with a dude

Simple. Facial hair is a male trait. If women have it, they aren’t biologically as attractive as women without it.

@tigress3681 Doesn’t seem simple to me because: a) women have facial hair so it’s not only a male trait; b) what does ‘biologically attractive’ mean vs. ‘regular attractive’?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir good questions.

I assume by facial hair you do not mean peach fuzz that most people have. If you also think that since male pattern baldness is also occurring on women then it must be a female trait as well, then you can say that non-peach fuzz type facial hair on women is a female trait. I know plenty of women with facial hair and as sensitive as I am to this situation, the truth is, human females are not supposed to have it, if we were, then more of us would have it. Male traits typically occur in females when male hormones (testosterone and it’s derivatives, btw, your logic means this is a female hormone) are present in quantities they should not be present in. Too much or too little, at certain critical times during the development of the person. Specific to facial hair, I would assume too much T post-natal, presumably during puberty (when males get facial hair) or anytime later in life when blood T levels rise for whatever reasons they rise.

By biologically attractive I mean attractive based solely on physiology and instinct and not on socio-cultural norms.

@tigress3681 Hormones are not male or female – all people have hormones in different quantities. Generally, male bodied people have more testosterone and female bodied people have more estrogen. And I don’t see why hair wouldn’t be found ‘biologially attractive’ since it’s natural and normal and we always had hair – what isn’t normal is socio-cultural norms that demand difference between the sexes be exaggerated. Pre-teen boys and girls have similar quantities of hormones, yet only the pre-teen girls are told to consider shaving their legs (NAIR now has products for that market, believe it or not).

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Your first two sentences are exactly right. This is why they are labelled male and female. Maybe you don’t see why it isn’t found more attractive but ask any male to pick between two identical females, one with and one without a mustache and I guarantee you that the one without will be chosen with a very high, if not almost 100% frequency, hence the point of the question at the top of the page. The reason for this, is as I stated originally.

@tigress3681 That is no kind of an experiment, I’m sorry. I can guarantee you they will pick the one w/o a mustache too, because that’s what they’re supposed to dislike, according to years of conditioning. I put more value on conditioning, you put more value on ‘biological instinct’ (value, here, means stress rather that what’s better)- I don’t deny there are physical differences or biological imperatives but our society is blind to how much certain ‘instincts’ are developed and bred into us.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I do not agree that male preference for unbearded females is merely learned behavior. Even in the animal world, outliers with physical abnormalities are ostracized and excluded from the breeding pool. Perhaps this biological/innate preference is further propagated by mass media, but I think people get more and more exposed to differences and become more tolerant of them, not less. If you do not like my crude experiment, perhaps we can test aboriginal males living in the jungle (no inet/cable)?

@tigress3681 I never said it is only learned behavior – I said that I stress the influence of learned behavior more than the influence of biological attractiveness. As to testing aboriginal males living in the jungle – results would not be generalizable to Western society and shouldn’t be projected onto our society but rather would be a reflection of theirs.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir Is right. It’s much more learned than something that is inherent. If males weren’t attracted to women with hair on them, then by now, women wouldn’t “need” to shave their pits and legs, because the hair would have been bred out through selection. But the fact is, women shave to rid themselves of their natural hair, which is indicative that this behavior stems from the society in which they live. Also, hair on women will never be bred out – unless all climates become mild enough to not need natural body heat. Since hair is a function of keeping us warm, it will remain useful in many places. And because staying warm can save our lives, the preference for a living mate (i.e. hairy) would dictate that his partner have the same traits to survive that he does.

Thus, in most cases all around the world, a hairless female would be the one with the physical abnormality.

You should be happy with your body, be proud of the hairs on your body. I think natural women are pretty.I have been attracted to women with more body hair then other women. Remember God made all of us special.

Hey….I just left LURVE to all of you…who lurved my answer….thank you so much! And those of you who also think the whole issue…..is a pain in the arse!